-Caveat Lector- Tuesday, June 08, 1999 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Helicopters give residents scare Air Force officials cannot say why a night exercise would have brought four aircraft roaring over town. By Keith Rogers Review-Journal Air Force officials could not explain why four military helicopters on a special exercise late Sunday night at the Tonopah Test Range thundered over Goldfield, terrifying residents and sending dust flying at the town's airstrip, where one of the craft touched down. "We don't know why they were hanging around Goldfield," said Nellis Air Force Base spokesman Mike Estrada about the mysterious flights that occurred about 9:15 and 10:15 Sunday night on the outskirts of the Tonopah Test Range. The test range is the northern section of the 3-million-acre Nellis Air Force Range. Residents in the Esmeralda County community of 450, which has one blinking traffic signal and is 186 miles northwest of Las Vegas, were rudely awakened by the ruckus. "Those guys scared the hell out of this town last night," Justice of the Peace Juanita Colvin said Monday. Another resident, Virginia Ridgway, who lives in the middle of town, one block south of U.S. Highway 95, said she thought "it was an airliner coming down. "It was so loud. It was right over the house, and then I thought a helicopter was going to crash on the house. It sounded like something big and heavy and loud. I thought, 'Oh well, I'm 66. That's it,' " she said. For Ridgway, being buzzed by helicopters was yet another encounter with government aircraft, from jets that seemed as if they were going to fly into her car's tailpipe as she was driving down the road to an off-course rocket that was launched from the Nevada Test Site in October 1997. The 34-foot-long, $2 million Sandia National Laboratories experimental rocket "went right over the house," she said, before it crashed and burned on public lands about 10 miles from Goldfield. "They should be staying the hell on the range and leaving us alone," Ridgway said. "They've got more land than they need out there. They don't need to be scaring citizens in the middle of the night." Estrada described the craft involved in Sunday night's incident as dual-rotor CH-47 Chinook cargo-transport helicopters. He said they were probably Army or Marine craft connected to the Air Force Special Operation Command, a multi-service organization based in Hurlburt, Fla. "They could have been from anywhere," he said. He said that Tonopah Test Range officials "knew helicopters were coming to take part in a special exercise." Asked if the helicopters were off course, he said: "It's extremely unlikely because of the modern navigation systems on board. Until we know why they were in the Goldfield area, we really can't say anything else. "We're still trying to determine who they are," Estrada said. Howard Vaughn, a Federal Aviation Administration flight standards manager in Las Vegas, said the helicopter pilots may have violated a regulation that prohibits them from operating at altitudes that would be a hazard to people or property. Grace Potorti, director of the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability, criticized military officials for conducting a late-night exercise over Goldfield residents when the unpopulated range is designated for that purpose. "It just gives me shivers to think about the fact that these people woke up wondering if they were in a war zone," she said. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997, 1998, 1999 DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
